Measuring hopper



April 29 1924. 1,491,803

C. S. JOHNSON MEASURING HOPPER Filed June 4, 1923 2 Sheets-SheetINVENTOR. (Mi/e155 a? Jam 50m ATTORNEKS Patented Apr. 29, 1924.

cm s. Jonson, or cn mrnen, ILLINOIS.

museums nolirn'a.

' a ummn'alea June 4,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES S. JOHNSON, a citizen of the-United States,and a resident of Champaign, county of "Champaign, and State ofIllinois, have invented a certain new. and useful Measuring Ho per; andI do .hereby declare-that the f0 owing is afull,

clear, and exact descriptionthereof, refer ence being had to theaccompanying drawv ings, in which like numerals refer to like parts. I I

This invention relates to improvements in the valve mechanism forcontrolling the op eration of measuring hoppers, used in measuringdrymaterial of any kind and particu-' larly in measuring and loadingcrushed stone and the like for making concrete.

There has always been trouble in operating the cut-off valve mechanismbecause of the pressure of the load of sand, gravel or .stone above it.and failure of valveto close completely because largeparticles ofmaterial would become pinched in the valve,--preventing full closing andcausing leakage of smaller particles. This valve is usually mounted-atthe outlet opening of a lar e bin adapted to receive a large quantity 0sand or gravel or crushed stone. Therefore, when the valve is beingclosed, it' has to cut through the body of stone or sand at the outletand in so doing should best be free to move material ahead of and out ofthe path of the valve. In this movement one trouble I has been that thematerial would wedge between the valve and the adjacent structure andblock the closing movement of the valve.

Heretofore there was no means of forcing out of its path enoughmaterialto permit the complete closing of the valve. The upward andforward crowding movement would haveto act against the entire weight ofthe material above, which might. be several feet deep and final forwardmovement was prevented by particles wedged in front of the valve.

Therefore, an object of this invention is to overcome the foregoingdifficulties in the construction heretofore used. One means for,overcoming the disposition of the material to wedge between the knifeand the adjacent parts is by curving the advancing:

the valve so it will have a shearing edge of movement to crowd thematerial forwar of the valve instead of wedgingit between the valve andadjacent-structure. Another feature of the invention in this connectionis 192:. Serial 1%. 648,294.

the provision of an open chamber immediately above the valve that is notfull of material and. into which the material may be crowded up aheadand out of the way as the valve closes and thus permit its closure.

Most constructions of this ln'nd have a I plurality of bin sections formaterials of different kinds, such as sand' and stone for concrete, anda corresponding plurality of measuring hoppers, and each hopper has avalve for controlling the inlet thereto that must be operated by hand.

A feature of this invention is in the means I for operating the valvesfor the two ho 'dischar ed together.

The ull nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanyingdrawings and the following description and claims: I

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a pair of measuringhoppers, partially broken away, and their associated valve mechanismsfor controlling the inlet and outlet ofthe ho pers. Fig. 21s the same asthe lower part 0 Fi%. 1, with the valves open instead of closed. ig. 3is a plan view 0 the upper valve construction. Fig. 4 is'.

a section on the line P4 of Fig. 3 with the valve closed. Fig. 5 is thesame as Fig. 4 with the valve only partially closed. Fig. 6 is a planview of the right-hand valve structure in Fig. 3. showing the valveopen. The particular construction herein shown and described has beenmade, adapted and used in connection with structures for measuring andloading loose material, such as gravel, sand, stone and the like forconcrete. But the inventionis not limited to the sort of loose materialhandled nor to the purpose for which the material isintended. It may beemployed in'any situation where loose material like sand,-gravel orgrain is to be measured, and particularly where a plurality of measuringhoppers of different dimensions should be operated together.

There is shown in the drawings a large double, conical measuring hopper10 an a smaller measuring hopper 11. In 1 they are shown centrallybroken away in several places, so that the height of eachhopper isrelatively greater than shown. These hoppers consist really of twoparts, the large and major portions 10 and 11, and the upper portions110 and 111, the lower ends of which project partially into the or inletend of. each hopper flares upwardly so as to be hopper-like forreceiving the material to be measured from the outlet pan 12 locatedabove it and which is the outlet for a large storage bin above the pan12, not here shown. This storage bin may be of several tons or a hundredtons capacity. The particular construction of this pan 12 is illustratedin Fig. 4:. It has a wide rectangular rim 112 with inclined downwardlyand inwardly tapering sides to the outlet. In the constructionsheretofore employed, the side walls of this pan havebeen circular, butone of the important improvements of this invention is providing saidpan with an opening 14 in one side thereof to receive the sand ormaterial forced forward and upward as the valve is being closed, asshown in Fig. 5. The top 214 is a horizontal covering or plate hereshown integral with the pan for keeping the material above from enteringand filling the opening 14 as the material flows through the pan oroutlet.

On the arbor 15 mounted in one side of said pan, the shank 16 of a valve17 is pivoted or fulcrumed. This valve plate 17 is largely circular, butthe advancing edge 117 is curved concavely from the shank towards thepoint 217 so that when the valve is being closed as seen in Fig. 5, itwill move and push the material along the edge of the valve and out ofthe way so that it will not jam between the valve and the side walls 12of the pan. When the valve is being closed, it must be forced throughthe mass of crushed stone or the like and as the stone isincompressible, some space provision for the displaced material isnecessary. This space is provided by chamber 14. As the valve is beingclosed with material above and below, it must force some of the materialforward and upward and since there may be several tons of materialabove, it is not possible to force it upward by the closing movement ofthe valve unless there is provided the opening 14, which is not filledwith material as it comes downward from the bin above. i

The circular wall 12 is modified. at the opening '14 to a V-shape inorder to reduce and check the forward movement of material by the valvewhen closing. The V- shaped section of Wall 12 is extended be yond theclosed position of the valve, thus serving to check but not positivelystop the forward movement of material.

To enable the two valves of a pair to be simultaneously operated, thereare arms 18 extending from the shanks 16 thereof which are connected bya connecting bar structure 19, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A hand lever20 is connected with one of the valves for opening and closing it andwhen one is opened and closed, the other is given the same movement.

In the rapid operation of mechanism of this kind, as is necessary inpractical use, the foregoing featurebeco-mes of great value becausestoppages of the mechanism by clogging or otherwise is very expensive aswell as annoying. It must always operate and the improvements abovespecified enable it to do so.

The valves 25 at the lower ends of the hoppers are pivoted at 26 in aframe 27 secured to the hopper, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, so that theycan swing downward in their opening movement, as seen in Fig. 2. Eachvalve has a fin or plate 28 on the back of it and centrally located witha stop 29 forming a part thereof adapted to engage the wall of themeasuring hopper and limit the,

opening movement of the valve, as seen in Fig. 2. One valve iscontrolled by a hand lever 30 pivoted at 31 on an arm extendinglaterally from the frame 27 and forming a part of said frame. Said leveris pivoted between its ends and its inner end is connected with theplate 28 by a connecting bar 32'. This is a toggle arrangement and isarranged so that when the valve is'closed, the middle pivot will passslightly beyond center, but will be prevented from further movement by abent stop arm 33 which is rigidly connected with the lever 30 andadapted to engage the outwardly extending arm from the frame 27, as seenin Fig. 1.

The other valve 25 for the right-hand measuring hopper is similarlyconstructed, but is controlled by a bell crank lever 34 which isoperated through a long connecting rod 35 by a hand lever 36' fulcrumedat 31, beside the lever 30. This enables one. person to operate bothvalves from one position simultaneously. The bell crank lever 34 has astop 37 thereon adapted to engage the outward arm from the frame 27 inorder to hold the toggle joint in place and hold the valve closed,accomplishing the same purpose as the stop 33. In order for this com- 1bined mechanism to operate well, the lower ends of the hoppers must beheld in fixed. position. Therefore, their lower ends are connected by arod 38. With this arr ge- KSO ment the slightest movement of the lever30 or lever 36 will move the toggle joint past center on its returnmovement and then the way the material is resting on the valves willcause them to open.

The invention claimed is:

' l. The combination ofja bin outlet structure, a swinging horizontalvalve for 'controlling said outlet, the advancing edge of said valvebeing curved concavelyso as to crowd away the material in the closingmovement of the valve without jamming material between the valve and thebin outlet structure with which it'is mounted.

2. The combination of a bin outlet structure, a swinging horizontalvalve for controlling said outlet, the advancing edge being pointed atthe end and slightly curved conpavely therefrom to the shank so as to 1shear through the material as it is being closed.

' 3. The combination of a bin outlet structure having an outletpassageway, a horizontally moveable valve pivoted to the structureat.one side'of the outlet, and an opennormally filling.

4. They combination of a bin outlet structure having an outletpassageway, a hori-' zontally moveable valve pivotedto the structu're atone side of the outlet, and an open- '-ing atthe closing side of theoutlet towards which the advancing edge of the valve moves whileclosingso that the valve will crowd the displaced material into said opening,there being a plate above said opening to keep it from normally fillingand there being no bottom. to said opening but there being side wallsto. said opening inclined up-- wardly from the bottom of the outletstructure to said top plate. a v

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature.

CHARLES S. JOHNSON.

